


The Average Saturday Night

by So_Many_Feelings



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Abusive Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 11:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13974252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/So_Many_Feelings/pseuds/So_Many_Feelings
Summary: “You wouldn’t dare.”“Try me.”Or the one where Arya blackmails Jon into covering for her when she goes on a date with Gendry. She is only partially successful.





	The Average Saturday Night

It was only five minutes into the first day of school after winter break and Arya was already done with school. 

 

While Arya loved her friends, there was only so much time she could spend listening to Hot Pie talk about all of the baking recipes he’d been able to try out during the holiday season.

 

Especially when all she could think about was the fact that Gendry was staring at her.

 

“Not that this conversation isn’t thrilling,” Gendry finally interrupted, “but I actually need Arya to help me with something for a minute.”

 

“Sure” she responded as they walked towards her locker. “What do you need help with this time Waters?”

 

“What are the chances you’d be interested in doing something next Saturday? Not with the others, but just you and me?”

 

“Like a date?”

 

“Why, are you offering to take me out on a date Ms. Stark?”

 

“Maybe. What time is this hypothetical date?”

 

“Does 6:00 work?”

 

“It sounds like a date” Arya teased.

 

“Great!” Gendry exclaimed before making his way towards homeroom. 

 

_ Now _ , Arya thought to herself,  _ I just need to find some way around my parents’ rules about dating _ .

 

***

 

After a long day of school Arya walked through the door with determination. She glanced towards the living room where Bran and Rickon were somehow already working on their homework. Granted, Winterfell’s middle school ended the day an hour earlier than the high school, but Arya had never been able to focus on homework right after she got out of school. Instead she’d prefered to go for a run or play videogames with Robb and Jon. 

 

Jon, her brother who was apparently nowhere to be found. He wasn’t in the kitchen making a snack or in the room that he shared with Robb.

_ Why did my brother have to wait for such an inconvenient time to get a social life?  _ Arya asked herself. 

 

Sighing in frustration she finally went to her room to charge her phone. There was nothing she could do until Jon was home. 

 

***

 

Jon, who rarely left the house unless he had to, didn’t make it back until 9:00 that night. When he walked through the door Arya practically pounced at him. 

 

“Where have you been all day?” she questioned. 

 

Jon, apparently amused by her frantic nature, chuckled. “I was just out with some friends, why?”

 

As much as Arya wanted to ask Jon to help her with her Gendry situation, she was also curious about where he’d been all day. While Jon wasn’t a complete recluse, he was definitely the most introverted of all her brothers. He spent most of his time with Robb, his friend Sam, or by himself.

 

“No reason. What did you and Sam do today?” Arya asked, although she doubted that Jon had actually been with Sam for the entire day. Especially once she realized her brother was blushing because of her question. 

 

“I actually wasn’t with Sam. There were some transfer students who just started school today and I decided to show them around Winterfell after school.”

 

Arya raised her brow, making it clear that she knew Jon wasn’t being completely honest. Jon was nice but he didn’t have the same outgoing personality that Robb and Theon did, so he wasn’t the ideal person for showing someone around the town. And he was certainly too shy to volunteer for the position himself. 

 

“Well, technically one of the new girls, Ygritte, ambushed me after history class and asked me if I could show and her friends around the area. 

 

“So you spent six hours giving a bunch of foreign exchange students a tour of a town that is basically a couple of restaurants, some houses, a baseball field, and a grocery store? I didn’t know there was so much for the average teenager to do in Winterfell!” 

 

Arya couldn’t help but tease Jon a little. She loved Winterfell, it was her home, but there was also a reason why Robb and Sansa prefered to travel to King’s Landing or the Westerlands when they wanted to go out with their friends. There wasn’t a ton to do in town. 

 

“I thought it would be rude to say no, that’s all,” Jon defended, “and Ygritte seemed pretty insistent that I be the one to do it. She mentioned that some of the other students hadn’t been very welcoming and I didn’t want to seem like a jerk.” 

 

Arya already knew that many of the other students of Winterfell High School weren’t happy that they needed to share a school with the students from True North High School. A few of their classrooms had been flooded during a particularly bad snowstorm right before winter break. Some of the students from True North were supposed to start taking classes at Winterfell because they were a neighboring town, but several of the residents of Winterfell had complained about how it would affect their children's’ education. Winterfell already had a tough time providing resources for all of its students, and the kids from True North weren’t known for their amazing study habits.

 

Jon, however, appeared to be completely captivated as he described some of his new friends. First there was Tormund, the red-headed giant with a talent for making crude jokes. Next was Mance Rayder, the stoic young man who was the unofficial leader of the group of friends. Then there was Gilly, who was supposed to be incredibly shy yet kind. According to Jon she had met Sam during homeroom and the two were already awkwardly flirting with each other. 

 

And then there was Ygritte. Most of Jon’s story seemed to focus on her. 

 

“You should have seen her in history today! She kept correcting Mr. Thorne whenever he messed up information from the textbook. I know normally I’m all for respecting authority most of the time, but he’s always been an awful teacher. Normally he’s the one waiting for students to answer a question incorrectly so he can embarrass them in front of the class, so it was nice to see someone do the same thing to him for once.” 

 

So Jon quite clearly had a crush. Arya could use that to her advantage. 

 

***

 

“Have I ever told you you’re my favorite brother?”

 

“Never quite so straightforwardly, so I’m going to assume you need something from me. Whose body do you need help burying Arya?” Jon teased. 

 

“No one!” she replied. Honestly, she threatens to kill a few of Sansa’s boyfriends and all of a sudden she supposedly has anger management problems. 

 

“Then what do you need help with?”

 

“So you know how we have that silly rule about not dating until we’re sixteen?”

 

“Yes. I also know that I don’t like where this conversation is going.”

 

“Does this mean you won’t cover for me on Saturday night even if I have a date with Gendry?”

 

“Considering the fact that your mother seems to hate me less than usual I’m going to say no. I figure it’s best not to anger Catelyn Stark when I have less than a year before I go to college. Besides, if Robb, Sansa, and I could make it to sixteen without dating then you can too.”

 

“But that’s like five months from now! I’ve made it  _ almost  _ sixteen years without dating, doesn’t that count for something?”

 

“No, it doesn’t. Although I will give you credit for lasting longer than Sansa did. I think she was trying to figure out how to date Joffrey since middle school.”

 

“And that relationship turned out so well once they were finally allowed to date.”

 

Although the Baratheons were family friends for as long as Arya could remember, Joffrey Baratheon was an awful boyfriend for Sansa. They dated during their freshman year of high school, at that point the dating rule didn’t exist. While he behaved himself in front of their parents there had been several instances where Sansa had returned to the room she shared with Arya and her wrists and shoulders would be covered in bruises. It had taken a while for Arya and her siblings to convince Sansa that she needed to have their parents help her end her relationship with Joffrey.

 

She now seemed completely happy with her girlfriend Margaery, but it was still a hard situation for the Stark family to deal with. Their father especially found it difficult to process the fact that he hadn’t been able to protect his daughter from Joffrey. 

 

“He’s just lucky Robb and I didn’t kill him,” Jon practically growled, “but don’t you think it also explains why your parents are so reluctant to let us date? I’m actually surprised your mother didn’t try to cyberstalk Talisa when she and Robb first started dating.”

 

“And you don’t think I could protect myself if Gendry ever tried anything?”

 

“I think I feel sorry for anyone who manages to piss you off, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lie for you.”

 

“Even if it means pissing me off?”

 

“Even if it means pissing you off.”

 

“Would I be able to change your mind if I threaten to tell Ygritte about the massive crush you have on her?”

 

Jon’s face grew pale and he gulped nervously.

 

“I’ll take  _ that  _ as a yes” Arya gloated.

 

***

 

On Saturday night Arya found herself at a nice retro diner with Gendry. Although Arya wasn’t normally the type of person to get caught up in romantic fantasies, but she had to admit it was nice to be out on a date with Gendry. They had become great friends last year during their time together on the track team, but this year there was something different about their relationship that Arya couldn’t quite place. 

 

While she still liked to joke around with him and challenge him to races during practice, there were also times when all she wanted was to savor the feeling of his hands squeezing her shoulders when he hugged her in the morning. Occasions where she got a little too excited whenever Gendry needed to lean in close to her to whisper some sort of joke into her ear.

 

Arya was having a great time with Gendry until she saw a familiar flash of red hair out of the corner of her eye.

 

“Gendry we need to leave right now!”

 

“Okay” Gendry muttered, looking a little hurt by her sudden desire to leave.

 

“Sorry, I swear I’m having an amazing time right now, but I just saw my mom. She can’t see me here alone with you unless I want to be grounded until I’m eighteen.”

 

“Alright, you hide in the car and I’ll take care of the check.”

 

***

 

Arya tried to look as innocent as possible when she walked through the front door.

 

Her father was on the couch with Rickon watching cartoons, but her mother was nowhere in sight. Arya went to sit down with her father and younger brother, hoping that to forget her disappointment about how her date with Gendry had ended. 

 

When Rickon eventually falls asleep her father mutes the TV.

 

“Jon mentioned that you went to go see a movie with Hot Pie and Mycah. Did you guys have fun?”

 

“Yeah, the movie was pretty funny, although I don’t think Hot Pie appreciated all of the gross-out humor.”

 

“Is there a reason Gendry didn’t go with you guys? I thought he was usually part of your friend group.”

 

“I don’t think he was feeling very well,” Arya nervously explained, “I think it’s probably that flu that’s been going around.”

 

“Oh, that’s so odd. I got a text from your mother stating that she could have sworn she saw you with him at Frey’s Diner after she dropped Bran off at soccer practice.”

 

Accepting that she was caught, Arya realized there was no way she wasn’t getting grounded.

 

“Okay, so it’s entirely possible we were on a date and I blackmailed Jon into lying for me.”

 

Ned Stark sighed and rubbed his forehead, clearly stressed by his youngest daughter’s confession. “Is there a reason you went to such great lengths to go on a date with Gendry?”

 

“Would you have let me go on a date with him if I’d asked for permission?”

 

“I suppose not” Ned admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I’m okay with the fact you lied to us. Or that you had Jon lie for you.”

 

“I just wished you and mom would trust me to make my own decisions. I know that what happened to Sansa freaked you out, but I’m not her. And Gendry certainly isn’t Joffrey.”

 

“Maybe you’re right, it’s possible your mother and I became a little too overprotective. How about this, perhaps we could invite Gendry over next weekend. That we can get to know him a bit better.”

 

“I think that sounds nice” Arya agreed.


End file.
